Dog trapped in pickup engine has new home, new name

Oct. 19, 2012

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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Chevy (now called Houdini) waits for San Clemente/Dana Point Animal Shelter supervisor Jennifer Stinette to adjust his new collar upon his adoption by Jaime Magana. KEN STEINHARDT, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Jaime Magana plays with Chevy, his newly adopted dog whom he found hitching a ride in the engine compartment of his Chevrolet Silverado after a 110-mile drive Oct. 1. Magana renamed him Houdini because "he escaped death." KEN STEINHARDT, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Chevy revels in the attention from San Clemente/Dana Point Animal Shelter volunteer Jeanette Perry as she helps Calleen Ringstad and Barry Berg of Capistrano Beach at the counter. The dog was discovered by Jaime Magana hitching a ride in the engine compartment of his Chevrolet Silverado on Oct. 1. Magana has adopted Chevy and renamed him Houdini. KEN STEINHARDT, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Chevy visits with Bob Bonner, a San Clemente/ Dana Point Animal Shelter volunteer, before the dog's new master, Jaime Magana of Chino, finalized his adoption Friday. KEN STEINHARDT, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Chevy discovers the camera as he sits on the lap of Bob Bonner, an animal-shelter volunteer, before going home with his new owner, Jaime Magana of Chino. KEN STEINHARDT, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Scratch marks made by Chevy the dog are still visible under the hood of Jaime Magana's Chevrolet Silverado. KEN STEINHARDT, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Jaime Magana of Chino pets his new dog, Houdini (formerly Chevy) as they rides in the cab of Magana's Chevrolet Silverado on Friday. Less than three weeks earlier, Magana found the dog hitching a ride in the engine compartment of the truck. KEN STEINHARDT, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Chevy (now called Houdini) waits for San Clemente/Dana Point Animal Shelter supervisor Jennifer Stinette to adjust his new collar upon his adoption by Jaime Magana. KEN STEINHARDT, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Chevy, a 25-pound dog discovered trapped in the engine compartment of a Chevrolet Silverado in San Clemente in sweltering heat Oct. 1, has a new owner. And a new name – Houdini.

"He escaped death," new owner Jaime Magaña said.

On Friday, the San Clemente/Dana Point Animal Shelter signed over adoption papers to Magaña, a building-restoration supervisor from Chino who had driven his company pickup 110 miles on a 95-degree day before getting a feeling that something might be horribly wrong under the hood.

Magaña, 52, said he parked at McDonald's in San Clemente, turned off the ignition, still felt movement, stepped out to investigate and feared the worst upon realizing that a hidden hitchhiker had been riding up front.

"I didn't want to open the hood," Magaña recalled. "He was next to the pulleys and the belts. Just a little move over to that side and he would have been chopped on those belts."

The year-old Keeshond/Tibetan spaniel mix had survived the entire morning cramped inside the hot engine. Fresh air from the fan may have saved him, authorities said.

Magaña, who said he recognized the dog from seeing it in his neighborhood a couple of days earlier, was in shock but ecstatic as he gently pulled him out from under the hood. The dog was uninjured and seemed fine except for a terrible thirst that Magaña quickly quenched.

He called the authorities. Shelter officials, marveling that the dog had come through the ordeal unfazed, nicknamed him Chevy.

Chevy went up for adoption after the San Clemente/Dana Point shelter contacted a shelter in the Chino area to put out word of a missing dog; no owner came forward.

On Friday, it was smiles all around as Magaña was awarded his new companion, known henceforth as Houdini.

"It's a happy ending," said Kim Cholodenko, the shelter's general manager.

Magaña and animal-control officials who inspected the truck surmised the dog had climbed into the engine compartment through an opening above the left front wheel and got stuck. Luckily there was just enough space for him to emerge unscathed.

The shelter screened an undisclosed number of adoption applicants. The dog's story had spread nationwide, so interest was high.

Cholodenko said it was clear that the Magaña family would make an excellent match after Magaña and his wife, Isabel, visited Saturday with their dogs Dexter and Dakota.

"I couldn't just let him go," Magaña said of Houdini. "I have two dogs, but after what we went through with this, it has to be ours."

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